I’ve been waiting a long time to see this post in the Announcement forums. Riot has finally revealed the details for Season One, which it’s probably safe to assume is just around the corner.

From Riot’s official Season One post:

Ranked Games – Once Season One begins, summoners of Level 20 or above will be able to indulge in our ranked game system. At launch, ranked players will be able to join one of three queues: 3v3 Premade, 5v5 Premade, or 5v5 Solo. Players will receive an individual rating for each of these queues.

Ladders – Once Ranked Play begins, players who choose to participate will have their Elo ratings displayed publicly on the League of Legends Ladder. On the ladder, players will be able to see just how they stack up against the rest of their fellow summoners. The ladder will be available on the League of Legends Community Site.

Draft Mode – Champion selection during ranked play will take on the form of a live draft. In 5v5 premade and 3v3 premade, the first phase of this draft process will provide the inviter of each team with the opportunity to ban the use of two champions. Banned champions cannot be selected for use on either team, so choose wisely!

After bans have been dispensed by both sides, the teams will begin the draft process. During ranked play, draft picks will be exclusive, meaning that a drafted champion will not be available for play by the opposing team. The team who received the second ban will begin the drafting process by drafting a single champion. Following that, the game will follow a 1:2:2:2:2:1 draft format for the 5v5 brackets and a 1:2:2:1 format for the 3v3 bracket.

Through this system, we hope to encourage players to embrace a wider range of champions, allow for teams to effectively counter popular strategies, and develop a familiarity with their opponents and counter accordingly. Initially Draft Mode will be available both in Ranked Play and in practice games. Casual games still utilize blind pick during champion selection.

Improved Visual Styles – Since our launch back in October of 2009, our UI Team has been hard at work improving the visual components of the PvP.net interface. With the substantial renovations required to support Ranked Games, now seemed like the opportune time to give the game a facelift. We wanted the new look for League of Legends to be brighter, more visually appealing, and easier to use. I could elaborate further, but I think that once you get a look at the accompanying screenshots their work will stand on its own.

As you can see, things will be a little different. I like everything I’ve seen in the screenshots except that shot asking the player to rate his own level of play.

So many people will be rating themselves improperly, whether because they don’t know any better or because they want to start at a low ELO and stomp people or whatever. There is so much incentive to lie about your relative skill level that Riot should just port over your current ELO (even though that system has some pretty serious flaws) as a basis for your new ELO. That or start from scratch. I really hope that screen is just a theoretical idea and not an actual feature.

At any rate, I’m excited about this news. It’s the best thing to happen to the game since the Kennen release!

When Twisted Treeline first released I was thrilled. I loved the smaller map size, the emphasis on fighting and ganking, and the importance of map control. I thought it would be a great map to learn with the two friends with whom I play most often and a good way to get comfortable with a faster paced game.

Some of those things came true, but as people have started to figure out the map I’ve seen the same teams over and over again. It’s always some combination of Shen/Mundo/Jax/Poppy/Mordekaiser with the occasional Warwick/Shaco/Singed thrown in for a little variety. Mostly, though, it’s the first five, and I’m tired of it. The great part about this game is the variety, which that map limits in a big way. It’s not that three-tank teams can’t be beat, just that they require you to play near perfectly for the beginning of the game. If they get up in any way, or even if they keep pace with you, you’re going to have a very hard time beating them.

People have been asking for fixes to the problem – map specific items, global buffs or debuffs to reduce the effectiveness of three-tank teams – but I think the solution is much more simple. We need draft mode. If each team can ban two heroes and no one can pick the same toon it makes the game much more interesting. You can bet most people would ban Jax/Mundo right off the bat, likely followed by Poppy/Shen or maybe Udyr if the other team has a good Udyr player. Whatever the case, I really miss draft mode from DotA and I love the fact that it gives players the opportunity to filter out some of the more overpowered characters that haven’t received their respective nerfs/remakes.

Riot’s said multiple times that draft mode is in the works but there’s still no ETA. As with the Flash remake, I’m hoping it’s sooner rather than later.

I understand that balancing a game like League of Legends must be pretty tough. If you cater too much to the best players you’ll make a lot of casual players extremely unhappy. The skill ceiling for many toons will simply be too high, exacerbating the gap between competitive players and casuals. Too far in the other direction and the game seems to lack a team dynamic.

As things currently stand, most players organize the champs into tier lists to give a sense of where they fit within a team dynamic. Since the holidays, Riot has released a fair number of champs, only one of which really makes the highest tiers – Nidalee. She’s often first pick in competitive play and typically swings the battle in a big way. With every new champion announcement I always wonder if we’ll see a new competitive champion, but it has yet to happen. Ezreal is probably the closest, but next to Nidalee he seems fairly lackluster. She has many of his benefits plus better map control and more gankability. She’s also much more mana efficient.

In part, I think the lack of more “top tier” champions is that competitive play typically involves a ban system. Implement too strong a hero and it gets banned immediately. Since the Jax buff I see him banned first in every draft game I play and for good reason. If he gets any farm at all he kills entire teams. I would like to see the release of a some top tier champions, though. Currently the best picks for tanks are Alistar, Taric, Malphite and Amumu, probably in that order (Taric and Alistar could be reversed depending on your team). Most games see two of those banned, leaving few options for either team.

I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for the next champion release after Shen. Shen, like Gragas, will likely be in an odd position with regard to a team. He could fit well with other AOE disable toons, like a Malphite, but there will likely be better options. Malphite ult with an Annie ult is infinitely better because of the AOE damage from Tibbers. More often than not, if you’re living for more than 10 seconds or so in a team fight it’s because your team is dying or the other team is woefully low on DPS, in which case you were likely going to win anyway.